The Essay Podcast
Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.
Episodes to download
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Le Grand Meaulnes—Paris 1913
Thu 10 Jan 2013
4/5 Writer Michele Roberts assesses the impact of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes.
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Alcools—Paris 1913
Wed 9 Jan 2013
3/5 Martin Sorrell explores on Apollinaire's ground-breaking volume of poetry, Alcools.
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Swann's Way—Paris 1913
Mon 7 Jan 2013
1/5 Why Marcel Proust's Swann's Way was among highlights of a great year for Parisian culture.
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Kirsteen McCue—Napoleon and Me
Thu 6 Dec 2012
4/5 Kirsteen McCue discusses singing and interpreting James Hogg's Scottish Napoleonic songs.
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Adam Nicolson—Napoleon and Me
Wed 5 Dec 2012
3/5 Writer Adam Nicolson recalls being a teenager as father wrote about Napoleon and 1812.
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Andrea Stuart—Napoleon and Me
Tue 4 Dec 2012
2/5 Writer Andrea Stuart celebrates Napoleon's first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais.
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Julia Blackburn—Napoleon and Me
Mon 3 Dec 2012
1/5 Julia Blackburn looks for the ghost of Napoleon on St Helena, where he died in exile.
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Mike Figgis—On Directing
Fri 17 Feb 2012
5/5 Film director Mike Figgis reflects on the hard lessons he learned in Hollywood.
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Josie Rourke—On Directing
Thu 16 Feb 2012
4/5 Josie Rourke looks at what happens when things go wrong in the production of a play.
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Bartlett Sher—On Directing
Wed 15 Feb 2012
3/5 Bartlett Sher examines the importance of rhythm when creating theatre.
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Emma Rice—On Directing
Tue 14 Feb 2012
2/5 Kneehigh Theatre's Emma Rice explores the director's role as a storyteller.
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Roger Michell—On Directing
Mon 13 Feb 2012
1/5 Roger Michell on emotions that go with starting a film, as he makes Hyde Park on Hudson.
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Justin Cartwright - Christmas—The Writer's Dickens
Fri 23 Dec 2011
5/5 Justin Cartwright reflects on the place that Christmas occupies in Charles Dickens's work.
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Alexander McCall Smith - Episodic Writing—The Writer's Dickens
Thu 22 Dec 2011
4/5 Writer Alexander McCall Smith salutes Charles Dickens's mastery of the episodic form.
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AL Kennedy - No Hope of Return—The Writer's Dickens
Wed 21 Dec 2011
3/5 AL Kennedy explores Dickens' literary response to the themes of poverty, misery and death.
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Romesh Gunesekera - The Orphan Eye—The Writer's Dickens
Tue 20 Dec 2011
2/5 Romesh Gunesekera on how Dickens addresses the move from childhood into the world beyond.
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Tessa Hadley - Rooms and Reality—The Writer's Dickens
Mon 19 Dec 2011
1/5 Tessa Hadley on how Dickens paints the reality of his world through characters' houses.
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Black and White: Messrs Smith and Carlos and Norman
Thu 2 Feb 2017
Lindsay Johns explains the inspiration he draws from a black and white photo on his desk.
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Black and White: Yin and Yang
Wed 1 Feb 2017
Xiaolu Guo remembers lessons learned from her father growing up in China.
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Black and White: Words on the Page
Tue 31 Jan 2017
Writer Glyn Maxwell on whether we have become too black and white, and too binary.
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Black and White: Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics
Mon 30 Jan 2017
Farrah Jarral talks about what it means to be fluent in something one doesn't understand
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The Essay - Gun Culture -The Howth Mauser
Fri 27 Jan 2017
Heather Jones explores the deadly symbolism of the Howth Mauser
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The Essay - Gun Culture - Sniper
Thu 26 Jan 2017
Nicholas Rankin explores the emergence of the deadly 'force reducer' that is the sniper
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The Essay: Gun Culture: Pistols At Dawn
Wed 25 Jan 2017
John Gallagher duels with the noisy story of guns 300 years ago
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The Essay: Gun Culture: Gotham's Gun Baron
Tue 24 Jan 2017
Brian DeLay reveals the life & arms deals of the most dangerous man you've never heard of
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Taking Aim - Renaissance-style
Mon 23 Jan 2017
Catherine Fletcher unveils handguns' explosive Renaissance origin
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Cornerstones: Chalk
Fri 13 Jan 2017
Poet Alyson Hallett is drawn to chalk landscapes and the large horse at Westbury in Wilts
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Cornerstones: Fire Rocks
Thu 12 Jan 2017
Novelist Sarah Moss discusses basalt and dolerite, the fire rocks that underpin castles.
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Cornerstones:Coal
Wed 11 Jan 2017
Writer Paul Evans traces a family line back through Shropshire's seams of coal.
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Cornerstones:Millstone
Tue 10 Jan 2017
Derbyshire poet and climber Helen Mort visits Stanage Edge, famed for its millstone grit.
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Download The Essay
Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.
